Second defendant enters Alford plea in 2020 murder of Hagerstown man at Md. state prison

A second man has entered an Alford plea to second-degree murder in the gang-related death of a Hagerstown-area man found dead in January 2020 in his cell at the Maryland Correctional Training Center south of Hagerstown, according to court records.

A weeklong murder trial had been scheduled this past week for Jermaine Eric Johnson, 27, in the death of Christopher Dorsey, 36. Instead, Johnson entered the Alford plea on Monday in Washington County Circuit Court.

Dorsey was found beaten and bound in his cell on Jan. 23, 2020, Deputy State's Attorney Sarah Mollett-Gaumer has previously said.

An Alford plea does not admit guilt, but acknowledges the prosecution has enough evidence to obtain a conviction.

Johnson is one of two defendants in the murder case.

Co-defendant Jabar Alexander, 33, of Baltimore, entered an Alford plea in February to second-degree murder in Dorsey's death. He was sentenced to 40 years with all but 25 years suspended, according to his online case docket.

Alexander is being held in a maximum-security state prison near Cumberland, Md., according to the Maryland Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services website.

As part of Johnson's plea deal, the state is dismissing other charges including first-degree murder, according to court records.

Johnson had been facing the possibility of life in prison without the possibility of parole because the Washington County State's Attorney's Office filed a notice of intention to seek that penalty in April 2021, based on the first-degree murder charge.

Defense attorney Samuel Nalli, in a phone interview, said the plea deal includes a binding sentence agreement for a 40-year sentence with all suspended except for 24 years.

The maximum penalty for second-degree murder is 40 years.

Judge Dana Moylan Wright signed off on an order for a pre-sentence investigation for Johnson, including a psychiatric evaluation through the Maryland Department of Health, according to court records.

Johnson's sentencing is tentatively scheduled for December.

Mollett-Gaumer had no comment for this article.

Johnson is being held without bond at the Washington County Detention Center pending his sentencing to a state prison.

Motive behind gang-related killing in state prison near Hagerstown

During Alexander's plea hearing in February, Mollett-Gaumer said if the case had gone to trial she would have presented witnesses and evidence that Johnson recently joined the Bloods gang and to show his allegiance he was to rob someone in the prison with Alexander, a Bloods member, as his backup.

The two initially had a different target in mind, but that mark was a member of a rival gang, she told the court. So the two switched to robbing Dorsey. Dorsey had his own cell so there wouldn't be a cellmate to fight, plus he was known to have a number of items in his cell through the commissary.

An inmate told investigators he saw Alexander and Johnson slip into Dorsey's cell just before cell doors were automatically closed around 8:30 a.m., Mollett-Gaumer has said.

Another inmate told investigators Alexander and Johnson had been talking the previous day about robbing an inmate, Mollett-Gaumer said. Johnson had recently joined the Bloods and needed to perform a robbery or some act to demonstrate his allegiance to the gang. Alexander agreed to be Johnson's backup.

When this witness later asked the two how it went, Mollett-Gaumer said the inmate said the defendants had changed their target. Dorsey fought back when the two started to rob him so they beat him and the inmate witness alleged Johnson "choked him out," the prosecutor said.

According to an inmate witness, Blood code is that if a mark starts to fight members they are to finish it and kill the person, Mollett-Gaumer said. She said the witness' understanding was the defendants didn't know they were successful until later.

Correctional officers began a cell-to-cell search in housing unit 5 after a shop teacher overheard inmates in his class talking about a body in the housing unit, Mollett-Gaumer said during the February hearing.

MCTC is a minimum/medium/prerelease facility on Roxbury Road that offers various vocational programs to help inmates adjust to life after they are released, according to the state public safety department's website.

Dorsey was found between 2:30 and 2:45 p.m. Correctional officers and medical personnel from the prison attempted life-saving measures on Dorsey for about 45 minutes until emergency medical technicians arrived and determined Dorsey could not be resuscitated.

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This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Second suspect pleads in Bloods prison murder in 2020 near Hagerstown